Summary

We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage of Fun with the Fed. Here's a summary of where things stand:

•The Federal Reserve announced it would continue to buy assets in an attempt to encourage lending, at the current rate of $85bn a month. That's $40bn in mortgage-backed securities and $45bn in Treasury bills.

•The Fed did not announce a change to interest rates and in fact extended the prospective time frame to "2015 or 2016" for keeping the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent.

• Markets showed lively spark upon the announcement.

• Bernanke said, "I don't think too big to fail is solved now." He said new capital and liquidity rules for large banks would help fix the problem.

• Bernanke said the labor market shows signs of improvement, the unemployment rate remains elevated, household spending and business investment are up advanced and the housing sector improved.

•Bernanke said that when the Fed decides to stop buying assets it will do so gradually. He did not mention a date for when acquisitions would begin to taper.

• Bernanke said he doesn't have any news on whether or when he might retire.

Last question: Given the unprecedented nature of Fed policy under your watch, do you feel responsible for seeing the policies through, and "to what extent do you feel personally responsible to be at the helm"?

Second part, last time we did this you said you had not discussed retirement with the president. "Could you tell us if you've had that conversation?"

"I've spoken with the president a bit, but I don't really have any information for you at this juncture," Bernanke says.

"I don't think I'm the only person in the world who can manage the exit... I tried to depersonalize to some extent monetary policy and financial policy.

"This is an extraordinary institution... There's no single person who is essential to that.

"With respect to my personal plans, I will certainly let you know when I have something more concrete."

The National Journal brings up 1999 and 2002 speeches in which Bernanke said monetary policy isn't a good way to deal with market bubbles. Does he still believe that?

"Monetary policy is a very blunt instrument," Bernanke says. "If you're raising interest rates to pop an asset bubble... you might at the same time send the economy into recession, which kind of defeats the purpose."

But "I think that given the problems that we've had... that we need to at least take into account these issues as we make monetary policy. What that means depends on the circumstances."

"I have an open mind on this question. We're learning. All central bankers are learning," he says.

The committee expects a gap between the end of quantitative easing/ asset purchases and the beginning of rate elevation, Bernanke says.

He did mention 2016 as a possible time frame for boosting rates. Under any scenario could asset purchasing last nearly so wrong?

Bernanke's taking questions now. He's asked about the lack of thresholds that would trigger quantitative easing.

Given the complexity of the issue, he says, "to this point we've not been able to give quantitative thresholds for the asset purchases. As we make progress... we may adjust the flow rate of our purchases month-to-month."

Bernanke says labor markets are improving and housing is stronger. From the committee statement:

Labor market conditions have shown signs of improvement in recent months but the unemployment rate remains elevated. Household spending and business fixed investment advanced, and the housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy has become somewhat more restrictive. Inflation has been running somewhat below the Committee's longer-run objective, apart from temporary variations that largely reflect fluctuations in energy prices. Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

Most participants see inflation growing, reaching 1.7-2.0% in 2015.

"We are continuing the asset purchase program first announced in September," Bernanke says.

He refers to the risks of expanding the Fed balance sheet and keeping rates low. Consistently low rates could prompt some actors to over-borrow and create a debt hazard, he says. But the committee agreed this risk is manageable.

Quantitative easing will continue at $85bn per month. From the Fed press release:

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee decided to continue purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month and longer-term Treasury securities at a pace of $45 billion per month.

The Fed foresees "a return to moderate economic growth following a pause late last year."

"The unemployment rate remains elevated.

"Longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable."

The Committee decided to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that this exceptionally low range for the federal funds rate will be appropriate at least as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6-1/2 percent...

Bernanke knows message control: The Fed chair scheduled his news conference on a tighter turnaround than usual today to get ahead of statements by committee members, Bloomberg reports:

Ben S. Bernanke is tightening his control of Federal Reserve communications to ensure investors hear his pro-stimulus message over the cacophony of more hawkish views from regional bank presidents.

The Fed chairman, starting tomorrow, will cut the time between the release of post-meeting statements by the Federal Open Market Committee and his news briefings, giving investors less opportunity to misperceive the Fed’s intent.

"The big question,"writes Ylan Q Mui over on Wonkblog, "is whether Fed officials can get it right after years in which they have regularly predicted a stronger economy than the one that materialized."

In January 2011,Fed officials predicted that GDP would grow around 3.7 percent that year. It clocked in at 2 percent. In January 2012, they anticipated growth of about 2.5 percent. We ended up with 1.6 percent.

Getting the forecasts right this time will be especially tricky: The economy came to a standstill at the end of last year, but job growth has picked up faster than expected. Lawmakers backed away from the fiscal cliff at the end of 2012 but couldn’t escape sequestration.

How much coal to shovel into the furnace? CNBC's 54 survey respondents "believe the Fed will purchase $917 billion of additional assets this year in its open QE program, up from $858 billion in January."

Welcome to our live blog coverage of action – no, let's capitalize that – Action over at the Federal Reserve, where open market committee members have been meeting for the last two days to decide which chins to tickle to make the economy purr. Their fearless leader, Ben Bernanke, is about to emerge from behind the green curtain and announce what they decided. Everyone else, even Ron Paul, will simply have to live with it.

A CNBC survey of 54 economists, analysts and money managers predicted that the Fed will leave interest rates alone but step up purchases of bonds and mortgage-backed securities. In December the Fed said it wouldn't raise the key federal funds rate until unemployment sank to 6.5% or inflation rose to 2.5%. The latest jobs report had the unemployment rate at 7.7%, the lowest level since December 2008 but still blah, and inflation at 1.6.

The Fed's program to purchase assets, known as quantitative easing, has been controversial, with critics saying the $85bn in monthly acquisitions is intrusive and courts inflation. While Bernanke favors further quantitative easing, leaked minutes from the Fed's December meeting showed several members wanted to end to easing by the end of 2013. Such a move would likely decrease bank lending and could hamper economic recovery.